House Votes to Delay Medicare Pay Cuts; Bill Headed to Senate
As previously detailed in a Health Care Lawyer Blog post, the 21 percent pay reduction to the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) was slated to take effect June 1, 2010. However, to the surprise of none, Congress is again working to delay the implementation of such cuts.
The American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act of 2010 (H.R. 4213), which was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on May 28 and will now head to the Senate, contains a 19-month “fix” of the 21 percent payment cut physicians are scheduled to face under an automatic Medicare reimbursement rate formula. (Note that the bill was actually split into two pieces by House Democrats in order to garner necessary support, and this provision was contained in the first part. The second part includes a 6-month extension of the filing deadline for extended unemployment benefits, and several miscellaneous tax credits and programs.)
However, the House vote came too late for the Senate to act before the holiday recess went into effect. While the Senate is expected to begin debating the bill as soon as they return on June 7, in order to circumnavigate the effects of the cuts it is expected that CMS will again instruct contractors to avoid processing Medicare claims until the extension can be approved.
